"A Rape in Cyberspace"

*Did Mr. Bungle commit rape?
Obviously, Mr. Bungle is not guilty of committing rape in the traditional sense of the word. But I tend to agree with the view of Julian Dibbell, that Mr. Bungle did, indeed, commit rape. According to Dibbell, "since rape can occur without any physical pain or damage...then it must be classified as a crime against the mind." The seriousness of "cyber"rape is not something can be lightly brushed aside, since its emotional and psychological ramifications are obvious very real. Perhaps the more accurate terminology in describing Mr. Bungle's crime would follow more along the lines of verbal sexual assault. Regardless of the manner in viewing the issue (whether as rape or sexual harassment), however, the fact remains that the act itself remains that words and actions are too closely linked to be considered disparate entities, and thus the verbal and physical act of rape may have the same psychological consequences.

Notes 1/30

A Room of One's Own
by Virginia Woolf

Woolf asks 'Why hasn't there been a female Shakespeare?' She does on to answer her own question. Woolf declares that even if a woman had the same ability and creativity, she would not be able to take advantage of such qualities because writing and publishing were not within their social role. Furthermore, women did not have the same educational opportunities as men, and women weren't allowed to act on stage until the Restoration in 1660. Writing was also looked down upon because it was seen as a way for women to be around men, which was very improper at the time. Woolf even does so far as to tell her imagined tale of of Judith Shakespeare (William's sister) and how her desire to write and act led to her destruction.

Is it important to be a feminist in writing?
Woolf says that no one should write with a chip on his/her shoulder. Women are forced back into thinking about themselves and defining themselves as women; in her essay, she talks about being told to stay off the grass and stay out of the library because women were not allowed in those places. The ability to be an objective intellectual is made difficult because we are constantly being called back into the associations of our bodies. Men, however, are writing like men because they want to keep women as inferior subjects (they are feeling insecure because of the Women's Movement). And according to Woolf, being self-conscious about your sex makes you a lousy writer. Thus, ALL people (men and women alike) who write self-consciously of their sex are part of the problem. Woolf says that Shakespeare was such a great writer because he was neither a man nor a woman, and wrote as neither a man nor a woman.

Notes 1/26

Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Mary Wollstonecraft

Wollstonecraft took over the care of her family at young age. She started up and was governess of school (self-educated). She decided to try to write for a living, and wrote one of the first responses to a conservative piece by Edmund Burke. She called it Vindication of the Rights of Men (1789). At first it was published anonymously, and it read as if it was written by a man; she argues that it is irrational to distinguish among classes of men. She is defending the creation of a Republic (as opposed to a monarchy). In 1792, she publishes Vindication of the Rights Woman. The "woman" is singular, "men" is plural. To talk about the woman, she is generalizing all women. Either that, or she pointing to the woman as an individual. She describes women as a class of persons who have all been treated the same throughout time. Her term "man" is used to represent all individual humans, and is shorthand for "mankind." Now,however, the word"man" is avoided because the sub-texts are condescending.

In VR Woman, Wollstonecraft describes the system of sexism as structural and systematic. Society, through education, trains women not to be virtuous, not to be rational, not to manly. It trains women to be immoral and irrational. By believing the system, women are jeopardizing their cause.They must come up with ways to react within the confines of the system, and so they become cunning and tyrannical. According to Wollstonecraft, "Every profession involving subordination is highly injurious to morality."Perhaps the system of education injures morality on both a personal and financial level through such activities as plagiarism, cheating, paying off loans, and fitting in. Furthermore, once you stop thinking for yourself, your morality is injured.

According to Chapter 2, women are degraded because the education they receive is really given to them in order to make them (sexually) desirable. Soldiers are like women because they blindly submit to authority; they are educated to behave in the same way as women. She is saying that if you educate men in the same way you educated women, they will behave in the same way. Thus, women are NOT naturally inferior; they are NURTURED to be inferior. A social system has caused this "inferiority" of women. Rousseau declares that a woman should never feel a sense of independence. She replies "What nonsense!" especially because Rousseau is a radical who is working for the equality of men (social contract). He believes in equality of men--not of women.

In Chapter 3 the same subject is continued. Wollstonecraft tells us that women sometimes boast of their weakness in order to get (illegitimate, despotic) power over men; and example of this would be a puny appetite. Women, acting as despots, have more power by playing on the weakness of men than if they had legitimate, rational power. Some examples of this include crying, fainting, and sexual allure. Women are taught from infancy that being beautiful is what they are all about. "Adorning your gilt-cage" every time you work to "beautify" yourself is the ultimate goal for all women.

Basically, this is feminism insisting that women have been given too much, and it is their turn to work, to do something legitimate in order to gain equality and power. Wollstonecraft is very hard on women, forcing them to look at their mistakes and correct them.

Notes 1/23

Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman is an example of a modern movie version of the Cinderella Story. The movie puts pressure on women to be beautiful and tells them that they need to be saved. If a woman is completely capable, then her prince will never come. The movie also puts pressure of men to be successful (in order to save the woman). Without success (money), a man can never become a prince.

CINDERELLA STORIES in popular culture/media

• in songs (references to missing toes, etc)
• Extreme Home Makeover--family is "saved"
• Memoirs of a Geisha--working in servitude until becoming a geisha (gets the guy)
• "Love Story" by Taylor Swift--very similar to Disney Cinderella story
• "Fairy Tale" by Sara Bareilles criticizing the fairy tale love story

The almost overwhelming amount of Cinderella Stories within our culture shows the pervasiveness of the tale, and articulates the dominant role it plays in our society. The tale has become such an accepted idea that we all subconsciously believe that we need to live the fairy tale, that women need to be rescued and men need to save them. But songs like those of Bareilles and Amos are challenging and changing this ideal...

"For Studio, Vampire Movie Is a Cinderella Story"

This is the title of an article I found concerning Twilight's recent box office success. According to the article, Summit Entertainment has been ignored by major studios and looked down upon by top-of-the-line film agents and managers. Due to the success of Twilight, however, Summit Entertainment has been transformed into a dazzling studio sitting at the center of attention--the belle of the ball, if you will. Summit has moved from rags to riches, just as the protagonist of any Cinderella Story is expected to do.

Despite their shiny new success, I just can't help but wish that is had come from another movie. It just seems unfortunate that a studio known for it's obscure films can only step into the light of worthy recognition once it has produced a pop-culture phenomenon. But I guess that process of "fitting it" is all a part of the Cinderella story; it's the Cinderella Complex.

Notes 1/21

Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

"The Courtship of Mr. Lyon"
The major difference between this version and the Disney version is that we never find out why the Beast is sentenced to be a beast. One possible interpretation of this story is that there is something real that corresponds to each magical thing that occurs in the story, and the story distorts the real, so that we can see it and contemplate it. For example, Mr. Lyon can represent any young man coming of age who is facing what it means to be a man, in relation to a woman. Beauty is fascinated by the Beast, but at the same time is revolted by him. This feeling of unfamiliarity and revulsion between men and women is typical, as is viewing the opposite gender as "the other. When the Beast is "tamed,"each gender is tamed, in one way or another. Thus, Perhaps Carter is saying that men find their own violent potential horrifying as well.For example, when the Beast reveals his revolting nature to Beauty, she is overcome with disgust but is able to come to terms with masculine violence.

Notes 1/16

Colleen Dowling "The Cinderella Complex"
Dowling's wish to be saved is not some new, unique wish. It is a wish held by many people (I would venture to say men and women alike) and I think it is a fairy tale that many people at least want to believe in--even if they are embarrassed to admit it, or know that it probably won't come true.


I also think that Dowling's view on the independence of women is influenced by the time period in which she grew up. Her upward battle to achieve a level of independence may have been much more driven by the societal constrictions of her time. Thus, the "collapse" of her ambition may have seemed the inevitable outcome of her journey towards independence. Obviously, this is a negative societal attitude that needs to be changed.

QUIZ: Weight--Introduction by Jeanette Winterson
*In the artistic re-telling of fariy tales, does art help counteract idealogy?
Yes. According to Winterson, re-telling stories is about finding the permanent truths about human nature. In finding such truths, idealogy can be contested; people will hear new versions of the same old story, and these versions will offer up ideas in opposition to their cultural idealogy. Such ideas of oppostions will thus force the reader (or listener) to question the idealogy they have so far unquestioningly proscribed to.

NOTES:
We make unconscious assumptions about masculine/feminine roles, as illustrated in the telling of the 'Cinderella Story." This story is told over and over and over again, and thus puts pressure upon girls to be Cinderella, and for boys to be Prince Charming. In order to be Cinderella or Prince Charming, the implication is that you can't be yourself. Furthermore, the societal importance of the question 'What to you do?" shows our automatic way of defining people by the jobs that they have.

The re-telling of fairy tales can counteract idealogy, or at least question and re-interpret it. And since we can't really live without an idealogy, a story can serve as an additional tool in forming yet another (variation of or completely new) idealogy. Angela Carter's version of "Ashputtle": empowering to the mother, who chooses to be self-sacrificing. The mother pushes her child into independence, and Ashputtle "does all right." There were thus many options in her reaction to the sacrifices her mother made for her (wanting everything or giving back)

Rediscovering Cinderella

On the handouts, circle all the words which caught your attention in "Ashputtle" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and in "Cinderella" by Anne Sexton. Search for these words online and describe what you found.

Having just taken a German fairy tales class last semester, I was excited to read another version of Cinderella. The first words I googled from Anne Sexton's "Cinderella" were "charwoman" and "Bonwit Teller." According to the Internet's most reliable source (Wikipedia) a charwoman is an English house cleaner, and the prefix "char" is defined as a turn of work in the 16th century.
Bonwit Teller, I was surprised to learn, used to be a department store in New York, specialzing in high-end women's apparel. I also looked up the term "marriage market" and found a few different blogs concerning the differences between arranged marriages and marriages of free choosing. Both types of marriages used the word market to describe the process and atmosphere of meeting a potential partner.

After re-reading the Grimms' "Cinderella," I decided to research the excerpts about the blood in the shoes. According to a few psychoanalytic interpretations I found, the sisters' actions of cutting off parts of their feet may be symbolic of self-castration. Additionally. the blood that stains their stockings shows that they are impure and not virginal. This is the opposite of Cinderella, whose stockings remain white and without blood. I also googled the line about Cinderella remaining by the ashes in the kitchen. According to one interpretation I found, the kitchen represents the warmth her mother once provided, and the dirt and the ashes show tha Cinderella is mourning the loss of such nurturing.